Unreal Engine 5 is in early access.

Epic Games launches Unreal Engine 5 early access, shows massive 3D scenes

After years of work, Epic Games is launching early access for game developers for Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of the company’s tools for making games with highly realistic 3D animations. And to show it off, Epic Games released an amazing video that displays how the engine could render a game space that faithfully reproduced a huge area of the red rock formations of Moab, Utah.

Epic is no doubt pleased to be talking about something other than its three-week antitrust trial against Apple that just wrapped up on Monday. And while the company creates a lot of fun with Fortnite, the Unreal Engine goes back to the geeky roots of Epic and its CEO Tim Sweeney, who is one of the world’s graphics gurus. Founded in 1991, Epic now has 3,200 employees and the company is once again free to tout how it innovates in the gaming market.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.